


When you smile I am undone

by fireinthedark



Category: Maleficent (2014)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-17
Updated: 2017-12-17
Packaged: 2019-02-16 06:19:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13048263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fireinthedark/pseuds/fireinthedark
Summary: Diaval, Maleficent and Aurora's daughter, over the years.





	When you smile I am undone

**Author's Note:**

  * For [WintryGooseball](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WintryGooseball/gifts).



> I hope you enjoy this.
> 
> Thitle from "Dear Theodosia" from the Hamilton musical.

Diaval was sunning his wings on the warm stone when Aurora showed up. He cawwed at her in greeting.

"Diaval! Just the raven I wanted to see," she said. She leaned against the parapet next to him. She breathed a sigh of relief when the wall was supporting her pregnant weight. Pregnancy was a silly way of reproducing, if you asked Diaval. Eggs were much better. He would have incubated Aurora's egg, no prolem, but this he couldn't help with.

Aurora stared at him.

He stared back.

She kept staring.

So did he. He tilted his head to the side.

"She wants you to turn human," Maleficent said. She landed softly on the wall. She'd flown in in front of the setting sun and he hadn't seen her against the glare. Rude.

He turned human.

Aurora hugged him. Hugs were the one good point of being human. Still not worth giving up flying for, but close.

Aurora let go. "I asked Maleficent already, but I wanted to ask you too, in person."

"What's wrong with 'in raven'?" Diaval asked.

"You can't talk in raven," Aurora said. "Just caw."

"That is how ravens talk," Diaval said. It was good enough for his foremothers, it was good enough for him.

"I'm not a raven," Aurora said. She sounded almost wistful -- why only almost? Bah, humans.

"Maybe one day," Maleficent said. She put a hand on Aurora's belly and added, "Soon."

Aurora nodded. "I wanted to ask you, Diaval, if you would do me the honour of being the child's godfather?"

Diaval stared.

"You were the best godfather I could have hoped for," Aurora continued. "I asked Maleficent and she said she'd do it."

"No," Maleficent said. "I said I would if he did." She sounded like Aurora, like they both really really wanted him to say yes.

"Yes," he said.

They both hugged him.

*

Diaval helped raise Aurora as much as Maleficent did, but had she ever been this small and so prone to getting into trouble? You took your eyes off Eventide for a second and suddenly she was halfway across the forest from the castle.

Diaval began running after her. In the space of a couple steps he'd turned back into his real and began flying after her. No one in the forest would knowingly harm her -- or any child -- and especially not with who her godmother was, but accidents could still happen. Or any other sort of trouble. Eventide was an even bigger magnet for trouble than anyone, human or raven, Diaval knew.

Eventide reached the edge of the forest. 

Maleficent caught her. 

Diaval landed on Eventide's shoulder nad nipped at her ear.

"Okay, okay!" Eventide shouted. "I won't run off again. I just want to see the forest, okay, that's where Mum grew up. That's where you're from and I've never been. It's not fair!" She stomped her foot.

Diaval wasn't from the forest, strictly speaking, but when Eventide put it like that, she had something of a point. Maleficent seemed to agree. She picked Eventide up and walked into the forest. Diaval held on to Eventide's shoulder for dear life. The leather paldron she wore for this very purpose protected her from his talons. Once Maleficent's grasp was secure, he flew off ahead to make sure everyone was on the up and up with what was happening.

That done, he returned to Maleficent and Eventide. Eventide's tiny hands grasped at him. He avoided them; sometimes she forgot her own strength and pulled at his feathers too hard. He came to rest on Maleficent's shoulder. He ruffled Eventide's hair with his beak. She giggled.

Maleficent took them through the most child-friendly parts of the forest, including the ruins of Aurora's childhood home. The fairies still lived there. Without Aurora they saw no need for a roof or even walls, so the cottage fell in disarray around them. Diaval liked it better this way. More places to perch on. Open skies instead of a roof.

Eventide spent the afternoon with her grandmothers.

*

Eventide found Diaval on the parapet. To be more accurate, he found her there when he returned from his habitual evening flight. She could see over the top of the parapet now and he still felt as young as he ever had. He tried not to think about that.

He cawwed a vague approxiamtion of 'hello'. Not even Maleficent knew he could talk a little the human way when he was a raven. He'd been learning, just to make Eventide smile. She had a pretty smile.

"Uncle Diaval!" Eventide smiled at him, bright as the rising dawn. "Can I be a raven?"

He tilted his head to the side.

"Mum says sometimes you and Auntie Maleficent make her into a raven and you go and have adventures," Eventide said. "I want adventures too!"

" _Too young_ ," Diaval cawwed.

"I'm not too young!" Eventide pounded the parapet with her fist. "I'm ten, not five."

She was right. Ten was a perfectly reasonable age for a raven to go adventuring.

" _Human_ ," he retorted.

She rolled her eyes. Diaval had to admit that was one of the things he liked about being human. He had never been able to figure out how to roll his eyes as a raven.

"That's why I asked to be a raven," Eventide said. "I can't be a princess if I'm a raven."

"An interesting point," Maleficent said. One day, Eventide would get used to this habit her godmother had of showing up unannouced out of nowhere. Today was evidently not this day.

Eventide brought her hands together. "Please, Auntie Maleficent. Pleeeeeeeeeeease."

Maleficent smiled. She waved a hand and Eventide was suddenly a raven.

"This is amazing!" She jumped in place on the parapet. She edged towards the fall.

Diaval grabbed one of her flight feathers with his beak to stop her. He let go and said, "Do you know how to fly? I don't think so."

"Teach me!" Even as a raven Eventide's smile remained brilliant.


End file.
